Rutherford Cross recently ran our third Corporate Tennis Event, this time in partnership with RSM. Director, Derek Lauder reflects on some highlights from the event below.
Leon and Toby Smith joined us for our third Corporate Tennis Event, held in the brand new Oriam indoor tennis centre at Heriot-Watt University. We were delighted to be working with Leon and Toby again; Leon is the Head of GB Men’s Tennis and has been GB Davis Cup Captain since 2010 (winning it in 2015). He is also going to be the GB Tennis Captain at this year’s Olympics in Paris which starts at the end of July. Toby is Scotland’s premier tennis coach responsible for the development of Maia Lumsden, Jonny O’Mara and Aidan McHugh, amongst others.
We entertained 20 clients who arrived at Oriam at lunchtime. Stuart McCallum, Partner at RSM and Derek Lauder, Director at Rutherford Cross made the opening introductions of Leon and Toby and explained the format of the on-court activities in the afternoon. The objective of the event was ‘fun, fitness and friends’; networking in a sporting environment whilst enjoying the unique experience of receiving tennis tuition from two elite coaches with global reputations. In line with Livingston James Group’s purpose of realising potential, we felt that this was an opportunity to also realise your potential as a tennis player, whether you were of a high club standard or at more of a social standard.
The on-court format started with a thorough warm-up before moving onto specific doubles tactical drills across each court, with each group moving between each court after a set time period. For the last hour, there was a fun but competitive doubles round robin with 5 elite level player couples in Pool A and 5 intermediate level player couples in Pool B. Pool A was won by Charlotte Walker, Assistant Tax Director and Douglas Pope, Head of Property Accounting both of Maven Capital; while Pool B was won by Sara Copeland, Group HR Director of Avidity and Henry Ainslie, PR Lead at Story Shop.
We then moved to the Courtyard by Marriott Hotel directly across the road from Oriam for first-class dinner and refreshments. Medals and prizes were awarded, and the event came to a close with an intimate Q&A with Leon regarding a variety of topics including GB tennis scholarships in the US, the UK tennis eco-system, Davis Cup, personal development, leadership development, and also Andy Murray’s recent decision to change racket to Yonex.
Clients who attended were asked to make a donation to the Scottish Lawn Tennis Foundation (SLTF), which is the charity arm of Tennis Scotland whose objective is to develop the grassroots elements of the game in Scotland, including: Redevelopment of Public Tennis Courts; Disability Tennis; Promoting more Woman and Girls into Tennis, Inclusiveness in Tennis and Tennis in Schools.
Rutherford Cross would like to thank RSM for partnering with us for this year’s event. We would like to thank all of our clients who attended, as well as Leon and Toby, Oriam and The Courtyard by Marriott. We are looking forward to next year’s event!
For more information on the Rutherford Cross Annual Corporate Tennis Event series, please contact Derek Lauder at Rutherford Cross – [email protected].
